add Web Browser as a Player entity

[vk2him]

[edit] NOTICE: This thread generally suggests using browser-mod as the solution for playing back music through the browser. This is no longer recommended. It is recommended to use Snapcast with Snapweb.

The native Media browser has the ability to play media files on the actual device (iPad,iPhone,PC etc) that Home Assistant is being displayed on as can be seen in this screenshot:

It would be great if MA was also able to use the Web browser option

[marcelveldt]

Good suggestion.

TIP: You can already do that with this: https://github.com/thomasloven/hass-browser_mod
It has the option to use the browser as media_player

[ItRainsSmiles]

I wonder if this is already possible in MA 2 beta. I tried but failed.
Greetings :)

[OzGav]

Hi there. Not possible yet. Go and vote in the player provider poll

[ItRainsSmiles]

Hi there. Not possible yet. Go and vote in the player provider poll

Already voted for "Web Browser" :) Thanks for the confirmation on this issue :)

[LordNex]

#I used to be able to use browser mod only music through a few years back. But it hasn't worked since I don't know how long. I don't see any of the music on my phone either

Not sure if there is a way but it would be nice if I could play all my Apple Music I've bought

[Rudd-O]

Browser mod is flaky and needs user interaction with the UI, it is also not embedded in the Music Assistant UI (you need a separate browser window) which automatically rules out playback on the same browser tab on mobile.

[erkr]

Moved to discussions, raise your votes!

[LordNex]

I totally agree with this. I was just out driving with my son and I wanted to play a track back on my NAS. I could queue it up to play but could only play to the google speakers I already have. It would be nice to be able to have my phone connected to my trucks Bluetooth and then be able to use MA as a music player while away from home. Would be such an awesome feature

[jdesai61]

browser_mod does help with this - but that means having to name each and every instance uniquely. What would be nice is being able to play to 'Current Browser' - the browser/app where I am using the HA app. The native Media player in Home Assistant has this capability and is typically the first option presented ("BROWSER") followed by a list of other media players.

[marcelveldt]

that is what this feature request is about... the browser mod is just a temporary solution until the final solution is implemented some day

[jdesai61]

that is what this feature request is about... the browser mod is just a temporary solution until the final solution is implemented some day

Agree thanks. I somehow thought that browser_mod was being proposed as a solution.

[Clusters]

Unfortunately this "hack" does not work for me.

I have the browser_mod integration working and added it to Music Assistant. I can see the list and select the player like the other connected players

But if I select something in Music Assistant for replay it won't progress at all, nor do I hear any music. The browser_mod itself seem to work just fine, as I can select any (local) media to play on the media_player.my_cool_browser entity.
Only the mass equivalent of this entity can not play anything.

Anyone had a similiar issue with that?
Currently I have to select every single music file (one by one) for replay, as I can not get it working with Music Assistant.

the only relevant log entry:
2022-11-23 13:30:03.311 WARNING (MainThread) [music_assistant.players.stream] Abort: client(s) did not connect within 10 seconds.

edit: same behaviour with Chrome

[OzGav]

Marcel has responded before that what you asking for is not possible. I can’t find the exact detail at the moment but you are welcome to search the issues and discussions. Here is one response he provided
Music Assistant launches its own -internal only- webserver to serve the audio stream to players on the local network on TCP port 8095. The ip-address that is communicated to players is derived from whatever you fill in at the "internal URL" field of the HA config. So it only takes the IP-address from there (and even resolves dns if needed) and ignores everything else.

[Clusters]

@OzGav thanks for the hint. It took a bit, but I think I tracked down the discussion you were referring to #794

With that knowledge it was relatively easy to deploy the code changes that were necessary to get things working for me. As this behaviour is wanted by Marcel, I won't try to put that mainline, though ;-)

[jdesai61]

So does this already work now with 2.0 release? If so, I couldn't find how. If not, any progress? Thanks Music Assistant team and contributors for excellent project.

[marcelveldt]

No its not and will not make it into the 2.0 release (more likely 2.1). If you need a way to play music locally, use a local player like squeezelite. At some point we will introduce a builtin player for the webbrowser or even app but that is going to take a lot of time to implement the right way and not top priority at this point.

[madbrain76]

marcelveldt, glad to hear that's planned. It would seem beneficial if one is on the go and using headphones or car bluetooth, with the smartphone connected to VPN to access HA/MA. I'm still unsure if the voice assistants are up to the task of properly selecting content for the car case, but that's a separate issue.

[gaustabl]

Hello. I have read all the instructions, reinstalled browser mod, cleared cache and «everyting» else for the last week but i am not able to get browser as an alternative media player. I am about to give up, but maybe someone here has had the same problem and found the solution? I am very thankful for any help, best regards Lars

[erkr]

Hi, I guess this discussion was working for MA v1 only.
MA1 had a totally different architecture. It was an integration in HA that used the existing music players.
MA2 is an add-on with its own players (for various stability and maintenance reasons). As a consequence, it will not recognise additional players in HA.
Note: There is still an optional MA integration part. That integration currently allows to play media in HA. There is a planned feature to also publish HA players for use in the MA add-on. But to my knowledge it is planned beyond the official 1st release of MA 2.

[OzGav]

to my knowledge it is planned beyond the official 1st release of MA 2

I just checked the backlog and it looks like Marcel might be working on this at the moment. So keep an eye out for future integration updates!

[gaustabl]

Thank for replyimg, then it makes sense that i annot get it to work😀

[SantiagoSotoC]

When snapcast player provider is released, using a browser as a player is possible with snapweb.
I guess it should be possible to integrate it into lovelace without any problem. I have no experience in custom lovelace development but I understand that javascript can be added.

[morpheus8888]

any news?

[OzGav]

Yes. Use Snapcast with the snapweb option and you can send music to any browser!

[alanmilinovic]

That is really a pity that you cannot use Web browser like in Media section of native HA.

[alanmilinovic]

That is nice to hear, but isn't that a bit overkill?

[OzGav]

Don't know you say that. If you would like to contribute the web browser provider that would be great.

[alanmilinovic]

All good, didn't meant anything bad.

[stu1811]

Any updates on this?

[OzGav]

What update do your want? Use the Snapcast provider

[angelnu]

Snapweb does not work when not home.

I usually connect to home-assistant exposed to the internet. I can do the same with MA (reverse proxy enforces user authentication) but this does not work with snapweb as it requires the client to expose a port which is not possible over the internet.

For time being I use a VPN connection - then snapweb works. Not as direct as playing in the browser but it works.

[stu1811]

Thanks for the explanation.

[mycroftsnm]

Does snapweb works well for you? half of the times i skip/pause a song the streams stop and i have to refresh and reconnect

[Rudd-O]

This would be swell. I find it odd that I can't just stream from MA when I'm out of the home directly into my phone. I can stream anywhere in the house, except where I am at.

[OzGav]

Please read the docs. Skip and pause not currently supported

…

On 19 May 2024 1:56:37 pm AEST, Alejandro Armas ***@***.***> wrote: Does snapweb works well for you? half of the times i skip/pause a song the streams stop and i have to refresh and reconnect -- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #436 (reply in thread) You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Message ID: ***@***.***>

[bibitocarlos]

Hope it comes one day ^^!

[bibitocarlos]

I saw that this request is considered as implemented, is it in the betas ?

[SantiagoSotoC]

Snapcast doesn't work remotely

snapcast does work remotely, but for security reasons it is not recommended, if you use a vpn like tailscale, you have no problem using it remotely.

And snapcast doesn't even allow pausing or changing track without breaking half of the time.

Snapcast playback is going to improve, it takes time, I am not an expert in FFMPEG nor in python, but anyone is welcome to make a contribution, or create their own provider. You could also migrate snapweb to HA.

[alanmilinovic]

Just make a web browser player please, it is not something that doesn't exist already in HA. Snapcast is an overkill.

[SantiagoSotoC]

If you are so interested, you are more than welcome to program it yourself. If you have doubts about how MA works, write me on discord and I'll be happy to help. But here we are volunteers who do it in our free time, because we like it, in my case snapcast is the most suitable for my use case and that's why I maintain it.

[OzGav]

@alanmilinovic Contribute positively or not at all

[marcelveldt]

There are plans to add a builtin/web player but we have some other priorities first. As we are very limited in capacity all I'm asking for is a bit patience and keep it polite. Thanks!

[madbrain76]

Why not keep the RFE open until someone is able and willing to address it ? Tracking it doesn't mean implementing it right away, or even ever.
I have over 100 Mozilla bugs and RFEs that are still open, many filed as far back as 25 years ago when Mozilla started, because they are actually valid, but no one has allocated the resources yet in all that time. Perhaps no one ever will, or it will happen after I'm gone. Many of them have been resolved years after stopped working on the project, though, and thus keeping them open was the right thing to do. There is no need to take it personally when an issue isn't addressed or prioritized immediately.

When the issues/bugs/RFEs pile up, It helps ton to have a proper issue tracking system that lets you set things like priorities, component, severity, status, detailed resolution, version, OS, hardware, etc. It blows my mind that the default github issue tracker doesn't allow this. I hope they will in the future. In the meantime, the only thing that can be used seems to be tags.

[lscorcia]

To save some time for fellow enthusiasts, I think you should add a note to the documentation saying that there is currently no "built-in, secure and supported" way to play music from Music Assistant in a web browser when connected via the Internet. The suggested Snapcast + Snapweb solution only works when in the same network, or with a VPN.

[madbrain76]

One thing I can mention until this is implemented in MA is that BubbleUPNP seems to work for this purpose. On my Windows 10 PC, there is a free version I can run. It exposes a DLNA/UPNP render. You can use it in MA with the DLNA Player provider, and it will play through the PC's soundcard.

On my Android 14 phone, S22 Ultra, I purchased the BubbleUPNP app, which does the same thing, but with the phone's audio output. I had purchased it a long ago, and not specifically for use with MA. It is a $5.99 app. I have nor relationship with the author. I think it's a viable workaround until the feature is added to MA.

[Pammetje]

I cannot play music with the music assistant (not in my browser, and not on my phone with the ha app) it says no players. Removed the integration and add-on from ha. I will try in a year or so

[tylerlucas]

This should not be marked implemented, because the implementation requires additional software and a workaround.

[Rudd-O]

Agreed. This is most definitely not implemented at all.

[OzGav]

Your opinions are noted

[marcelveldt]

I agree this should not be noted as implemented. Sure there are workarounds but streaming to the browser is not available today. All the workarounds that exist today are way too difficult as well imo. Lets keep the request open until we have some time to pick this up (not now, as we are swamped with other stuff)

[zeroskrull]

is there any tutorial about how to integrate broswer mod to this, everyone talk but no1 have a specific tutorial

[OzGav]

Did you read the bold text in the first post?